My locos are nearly all Farish Co-Co diesels
I'd like to assemble a simple circuit (oval or circle) to allow me to run them in.
I believe Kato do "pre-formed" track sections, but what radius should I use?
If there is another suitable alternative to Kato, that's no problem - I just need to run the diesels steadily for a period of time to help free everything up.
Thank you for your advice
Adrian
Farish and Dapol generally recommend minimum radius 2 (Peco). I think that's about 11".
:beers:
Go for the largest radius you have space for, plus it is a good idea to make up a figure of eight test track. That way your locos will be doing left and right hand turns without having to turn your locos round.
Kato track is very good and easy to set up, I use it myself and never had any problems with it.
Cheers John.
I used Kato 20-140, Curved Track, 30 Deg, Radius 381mm (15"). 12 required, about 25 pounds. Made one section a track feeder.
Dining table was 910mm wide so fitted nicely and quick to setup and pull down.
After a year or so, I made two small boards (approx 32"x 9") to take half a circle each. Simply push the boards together on a flat surface and the Kato track joiners holds them in place, small screwdriver in the board joint and a gentle twist pops the track joiners apart.
---------------------------------------------------------------
PS Make that around 20 quid for a complete circle.
I used the 218mm radius tracks (about 8.5") on Lofthole. All Co-Co diesel locos go round absolutely fine, as do DMUs, but I wouldn't go any smaller :confused1: I don't know if class 40s or Peaks would.
Cheers Jon :)
I just bought a Graham Farish Class 70 Freightliner (had to return the first one as it was DoA) and the documents with it state:
QuoteBackmann models are not designed to be used on track curves smaller than second radius in both N and OO scales
and
QuoteCurves
This locomotove is recommended for use on 10.5" radius curves or greater
Peco No.2 Radius curves are 10 3/8" - splitting hairs maybe :D
Anyway, I ran the loco in on a GF trainset track which uses No.1 radius curves and it handled those curves very well.
A test track is fine but just an oval won't show any issues with points unless you put a couple of those into the track plan :hmmm:
Quote from: newportnobby on February 28, 2016, 04:37:00 PM
A test track is fine but just an oval won't show any issues with points unless you put a couple of those into the track plan :hmmm:
:thumbsup: I have a Dapol steam loco that negotiated 12-ish" (Kato 315mm) curves ok, but lost the plot on every point and even on 11" (Kato 282mm) curves (it's apparently redeemable, as soon as I can find the time for fettling). It's one thing to run them in, but if you want to test before adding DCC (for example) it needs to be run over a sample of the most difficult track it'll see on the main layout.